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Sunday, June 13, 2010

Popiah Skin

Today, I am posting a recipe for homemade Popiah Skin aka the thin wrapper skin for Chinese Spring rolls. Popiah is a word derived from the Hokkien dialect. A good popiah skin must be thin and elastic. They should be strong enough to wrap the vegetable fillings without breaking apart. Fresh Popiah or spring rolls are popular in Malaysia and Singapore.

Anyway, my late grandmother was brilliant at making paper thin popiah skin. I recalled when I was a kid, I used to watch her painstakingly stirred and kneaded the batter until it turned elastic. I have tried using the same method in the past; but, it was too laborious for me. So, this is a simplified method, thanks to the modern mixer. :-)

There are only 3 key ingredients for the batter. You just need to beat the batter until it’s smooth and elastic. You will need a bit of practice to be able to coat the batter onto the griddle quickly in a circular motion using one hand. Click on the above video to see how I do it. In order for the batter to stick to the griddle, the temperature for the griddle has to be just right, about medium hot. I am sure you will need to fiddle with the heat adjustments a little before getting it right. Well, I will admit it is a bit of work, but I hope you will have a go at making the Popiah skin. Tomorrow, I will post the fillings to assemble a fresh delicious Popiah. :-)

Combine all the ingredients in a stand mixer bowl. Stir the batter with a wooden spatula, wrap with a cling film and let it rest for at least 3 hours.

Beat the batter for about 15 minutes, or until the batter is smooth and elastic.

Place the griddle or a flat cast-iron pan on a medium heat. Once the pan is hot, lower the heat slightly. Using one hand, coat the batter and rub onto the pan. Then use the other hand to peel off the wrapper when it is cooked.

Thank goodness for kitchen aids! Angie, I never ever would have thought it possible to make this - but popiah is one of my favourite vegetable dishes ever. I will bookmark and try one day. The video was a great idea.

this is absolutely the popiah skin recipe I've been looking for all this time. Most have eggs in it and it's all so different from what I'm used to back in Penang and the grandma days. You've made it possible for me to enjoy popiah again w/o having to go hunting for this in the markets (haven't found any good ones so far). Thank you!

Wow Angie, you are really good at it ! When I was a child, I used to pass by a popiah shop and watched them made right before my eyes ! When I grew up, I don't see them anymore, I guess the trade slowly died away - too laborious. I will definitely try out your recipe one day, nowadays it's very hard to find fresh popiah skins ! When I do find them, they are very expensive !

By the way, can I use non-stick frying pans, I don't have a griddle. How can I store the popiah skins so that they can last longer ? How long can I keep them ? Can I freeze them in the fridge for future use ? Thanks for sharing your recipe. -- MiniMe

@Anonymous{MiniMe}: Yes, you can use a non-stick pan. I prefer to store the popiah skin covered with a damp kitchen cloth at room temperature. I am not sure whether you can freeze the Popiah skin but I think it should be okay. You probably need to steam it first before using. Thanks.

I love making my own wrappers for everything. I made some for my duck with pancakes, my springrolls, nems and samosas. I much prefer it to store bought. I will try your way and hope it works out as i love tot ry new recipes all the time. I love your blog....

Hi Angie, great recipe,however, i have problems.1. the end of the skin always too dried and hard, it would not stick when i roll it into popiah, sometimes it breaks cos too crispy, i think maybe it's too thin but i don't know ho to make it as thick as the middle side.

2. The dough really need a nice beating to become elastic, or else, it's just a watery dough. however, the dough i made still lacking of elasticity like yours although i give it a nice 15 minutes of spinning in dough mixer. I wonder where i did wrong. should i beat it before leave it for 4 hours of leave it 1st then only beat it?

1. You have to cover the Popiah Skin with a damp cloth to keep it moist.

2. The dough can be quite tricky depends on the humidity. However, you can add 1 Tbsp of oil into the dough and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Then beat the dough for 15 minutes or slightly longer until smooth and elastic. Good luck!

@GreenVege: The middle of the skin is usually thicker than the side. If the end of the skin did not peel off, it has to be the heat problem. I am afraid I don't have any close up pictures from every angle. The color and thickness are shown on all the above pictures.

@GreenVege:The popiah skin should be white and not brownish. My recipe used 800 g of flour and yields about 40 to 50 pieces. (About 7 to 8-inches in diameter.) As for the heat solution, I find that cast-iron pan is better because it heats evenly and consistently.

1. The edge is sticking to the pan(im using stainless steel pan). It's hard to peel it off. The cooked site is white-brownish but the uncook side yellowish. I saw in youtube they use the same pan like me but they dont have this problem, i wonder why. Any idea Angie?

2. The skin is elastic, chewy and smells like wheat. T^T not soft at all

3. The skin too thick. i tried to reduce the heat, and yes, i could make thinner skin but it took 1 minute to cook it. I saw those people in youtube, they took averagely 20 second only before the skin peeled off from the pan.

@GreenVege: Making popiah skin is never easy; you need lots of skill, patient and practice to get it right. Btw, I have never use stainless steel pan for making the popiah skin, so I can't really comment on that.

after numerous amount of trial and error, i realise that we DONT need to rest it for 3-4 hours cos this is non raising bread.

usually we rest the dough for raising bread because the yeast needs time to get into action and release carbon dioxide(which makes the holes in d bread).

To make a fine popiah skin dough, just put it in a dough mixer for about half and hour. The movement of the dough will break the protein and form a 'Glutein'. a string-like polymer which does not dissolve in water. After give it a nice amount of glutein (which is related to beating speed/time), it'll form a sticky dough. How to know if its sticky enough? Hold d dough in ur palm, it should have a round shape and the dough wont fall in between ur fingers.

Oh ya, adding 10:3 of wheat and rice flour helps to get rid of the wheat smell too.

Hi, I made popiah skin today for the first time and it was very successful. I needed a little bit more flour compared to your recipe but I figured out what texture of the dough needed to be and adjusted accordingly. Thank you very much!

Ive immediately ordered this pan from amazon. Hopefully i will finally succeed in making popiah skin. U make it seem so easy! But Ive tried many times in past and failed - so i know that is no mean feat!Thks for sharing ur recipe n ur youtube video on popiah making is really wonderful!

Ah. This is what I buy in packages at Asian stores for lumpia wrappers. My Filipino friend showed me how to make them (the lumpia), but I've always wanted to learn to make the wrappers, too. I may have to give these a try. Thank you for the knowledge!